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Non-governmental Gender Organisations’ Coordinating Council Program Manager Chilufya Siwale says there is need for women to fully participate in the development of the country.

During the Non-governmental Gender Organisations’ Coordinating Council’s (NGOCC) gender awareness and policy development workshop supported by We Effect at Mika Lodge in Lusaka this morning, Ms Siwale said there was need for Zambians to work together to achieve gender equality.

“As NGOCC, we started implementing our five-year strategic plan this year. This plan runs from 2018 to 2022. We will be working with different stakeholders in mainstreaming gender and one of our partners is We Effect. So, We Effect invited us to work with some of their partners. In collaboration with our member organisations (MOs), We Effect has supported this programme so that we can discuss how best we can mainstream gender with the partners they are working with,” Siwale said.

“The ultimate goal of this program is to develop gender policies in organisation. We are all aware that as a country we are still dealing with the issue of gender inequality. If we want to develop this country, we have to make sure that we don’t leave anyone behind. We are hopeful that when we mainstream gender in all our programs, projects, activities targeting both male and female, we will all contribute to the development of this country.”

Siwale said there was need for Zambians to work together to achieve gender equality.

And Waterfalls Rural Women’s Development Organisation (WARUWDO) chairperson Sepiso Mukubesa said there was need for men and women to work together.

“I represent a community based organisation in Waterfalls rural Chongwe. I am glad to be here and be associated with the workshop that we are going to have for five days. Most of us are community-based organisations and we are members of the NGOCC. We have been invited here so that we can learn more on gender issues especially that as community-based organisations, we appear to do most of the things that are done by our main NGOs. We are into health issues, farming, Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights…we are here to learn more about gender,” Mukubesa said.

“Previously, we thought, gender was all about women or maybe just men. But now we know that gender is about men and women working together to develop this country. By working together, we will be able to deal with all the gender issues that we are facing in our communities especially Gender-Based Violence.” ... See more

Non-governmental Gender Organisations’ Coordinating Council has reaffirmed its position on the need for society to protect vulnerable women struggling to earn a living amidst tough economic conditions.

Speaking on One Love Radio special programme this morning, Non-governmental Gender Organisations’ Coordinating Council (NGOCC) Communication Advocacy and Networking Unit Coordinator Whitney Mulobela said it was wrong for anyone to disparage women.

On Friday, NGOCC confronted Chitambala Mwewa, Simoson Building director in Lusaka’s Central Business District for commanding a woman with a baby on her back to pick litre in the name of ‘keeping Lusaka clean’.

“There is need for a mind-set change in the way we manage our refuse. It is important to keep our surroundings clean but not at the detriment of the poor, especially the poor women who are struggling to make ends meet. It is incumbent upon all of us to keep our environment clean but not at the expense of abusing [poor] women, thereby perpetrating inequality which thrives on male dominance and patriarchy,” Mr Mulobela said.

Mr Mulobela said there was need to deal with the issue of garbage in the country but that using methods that are meant to abuse women should be discouraged.

“We need to change our attitude in the way we look at garbage disposal in our country. There is need to put in place policies that will speak to how producers of disposable products such as the multinational companies can be held accountable in how we can dispose of waste materials in a sustainable manner and not the way the gentleman in question [Chitambala Mwewa] was going about abusing a poor woman with a baby on her back, probably carrying twenty litres of water on her head,” he said.

“As NGOCC, we will continue on the path of fighting for gender equity and equality. We are also calling upon government to operationalise the Gender Equity and Equality Act. The Gender Equity and Equality Act will go a long way in dealing with the entrenched patriarchy that our society is grappling with today,” Mr Mulobela said.

He said NGOCC supports government’s position on the need to keep Zambia clean.

“The thing about advocacy is that there are various methods that you can engage when you are advocating. There are so many men that are found trading in that area but why did Mr Mwewa pick on that vulnerable woman who is trying to earn a living. We are talking about a poor woman with a baby on her back who was asked to pick plastics. It is clear that some of the plastics she was asked to pick was not even generated or sold by her. These are some of the things we brought out when we went to meet Mr. Mwewa. We said we know the problem about the dirty surrounding and the littering going on in our city but that action in itself was perpetrating the already entrenched patriarchy.”

Mr Mulobela said women have been marginalised for a long time and that Mr Mwewa’s attitude towards the woman was sad.

He said NGOCC had tried to engage Mr Mwewa on his Facebook page before confronting him on Friday.

“If you look at what happened on Friday, you will realise that we came in a sober way. All we wanted to do was to engage him. Like I have said before, there are various ways of doing advocacy and I am glad we did what we did. We at least told him as an organisation that what he did was wrong. What he did was to show people around him that ‘because I am a man, I can do this and that to this woman’. That was abuse and it should not be tolerated,” said Mr Mulobela. ... See more